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From Horn Book

May 1, 2022
In this stark and searing sort-of love story, two Pakistani American teens living in a California desert town struggle to choose connection over isolation when family crises strike. Salahudin -- artsy, aimless, and anxious -- feels the weight of the pressures posed by his sick mother, his alcoholic father, and the crumbling motel they own, which barely pays the bills. His ambitious and science-minded estranged childhood friend, Noor, needs a hefty scholarship to escape the domineering uncle with whom she lives, but gets rejections instead. Through chapters that alternate between their first-person perspectives, Sal and Noor tell intertwining stories of their urgent attempts to steer their own lives without support from family or their majority-white community. Sal's mother -- whose potent flashbacks of her immigration when she was young are interspersed throughout -- is a reliable model of faith and optimism for both teens; her sudden death at first draws Sal and Noor closer, but grief and guilt soon lead Sal to a cascade of risky, tension-raising decisions that threaten their futures. While some descriptive language, especially dreamy Sal's, borders on melodramatic, the tight focus on each teen's emotional experience reveals a rich layering of determination, trauma, anger, and integrity underneath their raw reactions. This is a brutal depiction of the toll taken on some young marginalized and working-class people trying to conquer the odds; watching Sal's and Noor's devastating loneliness finally give way to glimmers of hope is both satisfying and affecting. Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

Starred review from February 1, 2022
Grades 10-12 *Starred Review* Acclaimed fantasy author Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes series) makes her contemporary-fiction debut with this novel about estranged friends Salahudin and Noor, who are finding their way back to each other--or not--in the wake of Salahudin's mother's death. While Salahudin is confronted with the possibility of the loss of the family motel and Noor with the loss of the future she's dreamed about ever since surviving an earthquake in Pakistan, both are forced to make difficult choices that will retest their already-shaky relationship. Through the alternating perspectives of her characters that include interludes from the past, Tahir skillfully and with nuanced handling navigates themes of abuse, found family, guilt, racism and Islamaphobia, generational baggage, trauma, and more. A damning storyline involving the criminal-justice system makes this novel feel starkly real, while a touch of romance and a clever narrative device revealed toward the end leave an impression of everyday magic. Though their stories may be specific ones, these complex and electrifying characters contend with obstacles that many readers will identify with. An unyieldingly earnest generational story for contemporary audiences, Rage is a knife-sharp narrative with an obliterating impact that will leave readers thinking of it long after turning the last page. Fans of Tahereh Mafi's An Emotion of Great Delight (2021) won't want to miss this one.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Kirkus

Starred review from January 1, 2022
Seniors Salahudin and Noor, both 18, are caught in the throes of life in the small California desert town of Juniper, where being a working-class person of color means being treated differently. With pervasive racism coming from everyone from classmates to police officers and doctors, Juniper is a sinkhole that the estranged best friends are desperate to leave. But instead of worrying about college and his future career prospects, Salahudin is preoccupied with his mother's kidney failure, his father's alcoholism, his family's deteriorating motel, and Noor, who hasn't spoken to him in months. Orphaned Noor's dreams of college are slowly waning; her malicious Pakistani immigrant uncle, who hates all things Pakistani, has made it clear that Noor's future involves working behind the counter of his liquor store. Life was easier when she had Salahudin and his kind mother, Misbah, in her life, but a fight has left her unable to forgive him, at least for now. Chapters alternate between Noor's and Salahudin's perspectives, with snippets of Misbah's past sprinkled throughout. This novel confronts head on the complicated realities of life in a world that is not designed for the oppressed to thrive in. Tahir brilliantly shows how interconnected societal forces shape communities and people's lives through the accumulated impact of circumstances beyond their control: Substance abuse, debt, racism, trauma, and poverty are intricately woven together to tell a deeply moving, intergenerational story. Takes readers on an unforgettable emotional journey. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2022
In this stark and searing sort-of love story, two Pakistani American teens living in a California desert town struggle to choose connection over isolation when family crises strike. Salahudin -- artsy, aimless, and anxious -- feels the weight of the pressures posed by his sick mother, his alcoholic father, and the crumbling motel they own, which barely pays the bills. His ambitious and science-minded estranged childhood friend, Noor, needs a hefty scholarship to escape the domineering uncle with whom she lives, but gets rejections instead. Through chapters that alternate between their first-person perspectives, Sal and Noor tell intertwining stories of their urgent attempts to steer their own lives without support from family or their majority-white community. Sal's mother -- whose potent flashbacks of her immigration when she was young are interspersed throughout -- is a reliable model of faith and optimism for both teens; her sudden death at first draws Sal and Noor closer, but grief and guilt soon lead Sal to a cascade of risky, tension-raising decisions that threaten their futures. While some descriptive language, especially dreamy Sal's, borders on melodramatic, the tight focus on each teen's emotional experience reveals a rich layering of determination, trauma, anger, and integrity underneath their raw reactions. This is a brutal depiction of the toll taken on some young marginalized and working-class people trying to conquer the odds; watching Sal's and Noor's devastating loneliness finally give way to glimmers of hope is both satisfying and affecting.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From School Library Journal

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-In a genre flip from fantasy, Tahir has created a contemporary novel that spans both time and place. In past Pakistan, Misbah weds Toufiq in an arranged marriage that results in a move to California after upheaval at home. Now they run a small hotel in the Mojave Desert. Their son Salahudin and dear family friend Noor hold a connection bound by their history and the challenges they face due to Islamophobia, racism, and more. When his mother's health fails and his father battles alcoholism as he grieves, the financial and maintenance aspects of the hotel fall to Sal, who takes drastic measures to save the hotel his mother loved so very much. Simultaneously, Noor is striving to leave her uncle's grasp by planning to go away to college, but finds herself caught up by Sal's choices. Tahir's lyrical prose unpacks both the beautiful and the brutal. She deftly captures the layers of grief, rage, family, examination of faith, and forgiveness, while managing to inject levity into dire situations and provide a semblance of hope. Music aficionados will revel in the songs referenced throughout various scenes in the book. VERDICT This deep dive into the complex ferocity of emotions within families is a love letter to Pakistani culture and revelations from the past that test the boundaries of survival. Put this book at the top of your list.-Lisa Krok, Morley Lib., Cleveland, OH

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

Starred review
A stellar trio of narrators delivers the alternating viewpoints in this superb contemporary debut by YA fantasy author Sabaa Tahir. Abuse, alcohol consumption, and drug use are major parts of this story, along with grief and loss. Narrator Kamran R. Khan portrays 18-year-old Salahudin, whose vulnerability and poet's soul shine as he tries to handle his father's drinking and debts and his own tangled relationship with his best friend, Noor. Kausar Mohammed portrays 18-year-old Noor. At 6, Noor lost her family and almost lost her life in an earthquake. She was rescued by an uncle who is exacting a terrible price. Narrator Deepti Gupta's deep voice expresses the mature personality of Misbah, Salahudin's mother. As the story shifts in time, listeners hear her perspectives as a young adult and as a mature woman who is caring for her son and adoptive daughter. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award